Q: How concerning is the depth at the wide receiver position now that you've suffered a rash of injuries at that position?

JM: Well, you know, we can't really control those things. We like our group and, obviously, the guys that aren't out there that have an opportunity to get back out there will work as hard as they can to do that, but we like our group. It's an opportunity for us now to continue to work on our continuity and our consistency, our trust and dependability with one another, with those guys. Now we have a lot of game film here to watch and try to improve on. That’s across the board – it’s not just at that position. We didn’t do well enough last night to win. Hopefully, we can make a lot of progress here after we make our corrections today.

Q: How much of getting to know the different skill-sets of your running backs is a work in progress at this point in the season?

JM: Well, I think we, obviously, are familiar with all of the people we have. Now we have an opportunity to work with them in regular season games and try to make improvement where we can. There are some things that we did well and there are some things that we didn’t do well, so that’s across the board at every position with every player. It starts with me. I didn’t do a good enough job yesterday of putting us in position to do the things we needed to do consistently enough. All of the backs did some positive things. The game kind of eventually dictated that we go a certain direction with it. That’s how that played out, but we like our group. They all work hard and they’re all ready to go each week and we’re going to continue to try and get better at each position on our offense.

Q: What has it been like working with Brandin Cooks and having him in your offense?

JM: Yeah, Brandin [Cooks] has been a great addition for us. He works really hard, has a great attitude. He’s a very competitive player, does a lot of things well and made some plays for us last night. Like everybody, we'll continue to try and work and improve and get better with each guy on our group. But it's been a good addition for our team and hopefully we can just continue to get better as we go.

Q: In short-yardage situations, how do you balance the options of either having Tom Brady run a sneak versus handing off on a more traditional running play to try and gain that yard?

JM: Yeah, well you always want to try to give the group that’s out there the best opportunity, the best chance for success, no matter what it is you call. Certainly, what the defense is or isn’t doing could impact what you end up doing. Our execution of whatever the play is, whether it’s a quarterback sneak, or a run play, or a pass play, or protections or routes – whatever it is – is really I think the critical component of any successful play on offense. We've got to do a good job of coaching it. We can coach it better. We can execute it better in those types of situations so that we have an opportunity to win those plays. Obviously, they were big plays in the game last night. We don’t feel good about coming off the field after missing an opportunity on fourth-down when Coach [Bill Belichick] gives us an opportunity to go for it.

Q: How much more difficult is it for you to game plan when a guy like Julian Edelman, who has been so consistent, is now missing from the lineup?

JM: The game plan process really is the same as it always is as you take the people that are available to you and then you try to create the game plan to give those players the best chance to have success as a unit together against the team that you’re playing. We've had a number of players over the course of many years that have missed games or missed time that you understand that that week that person is not a part of the game plan. Our responsibility is to put together a game plan, have a good week of practice and go out and execute whatever it is on game day to give our team a chance to win. It’s never great when you miss players that make a significant impact like we’ve have to deal with in the past with Julian [Edelman]. Nothing changes with us. We have a certain group of guys that are available to us each week. Our goal and our responsibility is to have a great game plan and go out and execute and score points. That’s what our job is and that’s what we need to do.

Q: Why was there such a disparity in the effectiveness of the offense between the first and second half?

JM: Overall execution and missing some opportunities always hurts your ability to sustain drives consistently. Like I said, there are a lot of things we’ve got to do better. We're going to look at the film part today. After a football game, whether you win, lose, tie, score 50, 20, 30, 10, whatever you end up doing, there are always things that you’re going to see on the film to be able to correct and try to do better that would’ve probably impacted the outcome, also. It’s no different here. We've got a lot of things we can correct; a lot of things we have to correct so that we can play better. Ultimately, when you play against a good defense, if you want to sustain drives and be out there and convert third-downs and stay on the field and score points, that takes a lot of continuous execution across the board. If you have a breakdown in any area on any play it could ultimately be the play that ends the drive. You learn from your mistakes and hopefully we can get better from them, the ones that we made last night.

Q: Could you speak to the risk-reward of taking some deep shots on early downs and what it means for the ensuing downs?

JM: Yeah, well, I mean you make some and they’re great. If you don’t, you can always put yourself in a situation where there is a little more risk on the following play or the successive plays. That’s part of football. If you always are playing too close to the vest then you may not eventually be able to make any big plays. I thought we made some last night. Certainly, we didn’t make enough to win and we've got a lot to fix and correct.

Q: How much did Danny Amendola going down last night shorten your play sheet given that his replacement, Phillip Dorsett, just arrived here this week?

JM: Yeah, I mean this happens or you have to be ready for it to happen each week so it’s truly not anything new. We've had players that have less experience that have to play and you have to adjust and still give everybody out there an opportunity that they’re comfortable doing, that they know how to do well. It allows your offense an opportunity to move the ball down the field and score points. The end result for us and the goal for us each time we go out on the field is never going to change. Regardless of the personnel that’s out there it’s our job, it’s our responsibility, it’s the only thing we're sent out there on the field to do. Whether we have to shrink some of the things we could or couldn’t do, that’s just part of football. Each week whether it’s before the game starts you have injuries or inactives or whatever it might be, or during the game you have an injury that may affect something. That happens to every team every single week during the year. We have no excuses whatsoever. We didn’t play good enough. We didn’t coach good enough. It starts with me on offense. We've got to do a lot of work here to try and make progress and improve, so hopefully we can play better next week.